#97: Doctors Make Great Entrepreneurs

Foreign. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey, everyone. Hope you're having another great week. I know I am, and I hope you are as well. Before we start this week's episode, I have to remind you about the Leverage and Gross summit that's coming up. The virtual summit for physicians taking place on March 9th through 13th. It is my favorite event of the year. Well, it's that one and pimdcon, right, our real estate conference. Those are my two favorite events of the year. I mean, the reason I love this event, the Leverage and Grow Summit, is that it's. It is all about stories. It's about stories of physicians doing some pretty amazing things outside of medicine. You know, leveraging their medical degrees, all the ambition and skills that they've grown and cultivated throughout their medical training, and then using it for some other ventures to create their ideal lives. I think it's really, really cool. There's so many really amazing people that are part of this, and I think you'll really enjoy it. The best part is it's a free summit. So head over to Leverage and Growth. Go ahead and sign up and register for free. The Facebook group is amazing. We're even gonna be doing some free coaching this time, meaning that if you're interested in stuff and you wanna get coached on how to take action, even on some of your ventures, there's gonna be free coaching available each day of the conference. I can't stress that enough. So I'm excited by it. I hope you're excited by it and look out for that. So onto this week's episode. Now, falling in line with the theme of the Leveraging Growth Summit. You know, I get asked this all the time. I even love talking about it. Somebody asked me, do doctors make good entrepreneurs? And I know that when it comes to entrepreneurship, there's a lot of misconceptions out there, especially when it comes to doctors, for one. I mean, I think many people think that the only way a doctor can be an entrepreneur is by running their own practice. Now, this isn't wrong. Running a practice is running a business, and it's hard work. For those of you who do that, it's a business. You know, there's a lot more to it than just being a good physician. And you gotta be a good leader. You have to understand, you know, finances, hiring, manage a whole set of people. It's a true business. And as you know, and everyone knows, we haven't gotten training on it. We never did. But these days, that isn't the only way we're able to run a business. There are many more options available to us now. I mean, honestly, there seems to be this idea that physicians are, well, pigeonholed or they're kind of cramped into just being a physician. You know, in reality, from like the side hustles to all these full blown businesses, the modern physicians simply, we're not just limited to medicine. We could take our degrees, our skillset, our knowledge, our experience to really branch off into so many really cool different ventures. And again, that's what we end up showcasing on the Leveraging Growth Summit that we do every year. But in this episode, we're just going to be talking about how entrepreneurship and being a doctor are not mutually exclusive. I'm going to explore that question. Do doctors make good entrepreneurs? And I talked about this in a previous episode, but doctors and entrepreneurs, they're very similar. I mean, they are. I mean, a lot of physicians think that starting a business right is something that you only do if you go to business school. It's a completely different profession. We went to medical school, we learned about anatomy, physiology. We didn't learn about, you know, macroeconomics, microeconomics. Maybe some of you did in colle. But as it turns out though, doctors and entrepreneurs have a lot in common. For one, I mean, both require really strong critical thinking and problem solving skills. You know, as doctors, we've always had to remain calm and clear headed under pressure. I mean, many of you have been to a code before. If any of you had a difficult airway before or you dealt with a trauma patient, you know that we have to remain absolutely calm and we've got to be precise to make sure this patient pulls through. To be honest with you, that's probably more pressure there than any other standard entrepreneur has to go through. Are they dealing with life and death? Probably not often, but we are, you know, and that's a huge skill and asset that we have. And then another important trait that we both share, it's the art of discipline. Like we know a thing or two about really just buckling down, getting things done. We know about working towards a goal until we reach it, until we get there. I like to quote Steve Jobs every once in a while. Obviously many of you carry Apple products within your pocket. He said this. I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non successful ones is pure perseverance. And I think that us as physicians, as doctors, right, as high income professionals, we gave up years, decades, well, a decade maybe or more of our lives really focused on a goal and we persevered until we reached it. So I'm convinced that all of you listening to this, you know what it means to fight and grind until we make it. And I know that in your life you can find examples of that. Next, we're creative people. I mean, as you know, the medical profession, it's, you know, it's rampant with symptoms of burnout. People are talking about this all the time and people getting worn out and obviously the pandemic and everything we just went through, it really hasn't helped things taking up a hobby now, I don't know if some of you have done that during this time. It's obviously a great way to relieve some of that stress. But being an entrepreneur, it can also serve, I'd say, two even more important purposes. A creative outlet, but then also an income generator. Now, most people think of a creative outlet as something like painting, sculpting, doing something like that. But I mean, these are great. And for some people, they're able to do some amazing things with it, make great impact. But I found that solving problems for physicians, they just love that, that it brings them some significance in life, that makes them feel good about themselves and honestly challenges them in a way that maybe in medicine you've been doing that thing for a while, maybe you're not getting that same kind of challenge. And I think this is what business and starting a business really boils down to. It's solving a problem, seeing problem, solving it, and then bringing value to the world as a result. For example, you know, when I was trying to buy my own home, my first home as a recent graduate, I found it difficult. Nobody told you how to do these type of things. I had very little knowledge about loans, real estate agents. I just moved to kind of like a new area of town. I mean, how did I figure that out? I mean, it took a lot of time, energy and effort to do that. And I found that to be a problem among physicians and other doctors. And so I created a company called Curbside Real Estate, which just helped be really a, you know, concierge type service for people trying to buy their own homes, right? To help them with physician loans, buying real estate agents all over the country trying to make this process simple and easy. And I wanted it to be a free service. And we were Able to do that through our company, Curbside. I'm still really proud of that business that I run today because it solves a problem for a lot of people. Many of you might have used that service. I have a good friend, her name is Dr. Manasa Machvati. And she didn't want her children to eat on plastic, like plates and with plastic forks and knives day in and day out. So she created the world's first colorful stainless steel dinnerware. I called it Himsa. And you know, we've interviewed her in the past. She solved the problem and now that product is, you know, all online, in stores. It's pretty amazing. Now, I think that doctors are amazing at creatively solving issues. I know that's so much in medicine now. Unfortunately, it's been boiled down to like algorithms. So when you see a doctor, though, in the heat of action, where they can't just follow simple algorithms, it's amazing the creativity that they draw on to save the day, right? To make things happen. So honestly, running a side hustle or full time business, it can scratch some of those itches that you might not even know you have and use a part of your brain that you've been ignoring. Next. Look, we can network like we're no strangers to networking. From med school to being attending, we've gone to so many conferences, we met with department heads, we made friends with our colleagues. We use so many of those connections to find jobs to create global change. I'd say, and this is a good thing, it's a skill that translates perfectly into running a business. As the old saying goes, it's not what you know, but it's who you know. I mean, so many of you walk around the hospital, you network with so many different people in so many different fields, you're able to draw from expertise in different areas. That's honestly what entrepreneurship is about too. How do you find the resources? And a lot of it is all about finding the right people to solve the problems that you might have or what will help you take the next step in your business. We can network and we're great at it. Next. We feel fulfilled by doing good. I mean, many of us became doctors for the same reason, right? For that reason, to help people. I mean, ultimately, that's what it was about, right? That's the part of the job that all of us love and drives us. And that's a great thing. I mean, at the end of the day, it's nice that you did your job well. I mean, that's very satisfying as well. However, These days, you know, with all the extra red tape, regulations, EMRs, general stress of just changing, you know, the job market has changed, I can understand why that feeling of fulfillment can get sucked away a bit. You know, having a business that you take care of and nurture and grow, right? Like a plan, It's a great way of recapturing that sense of fulfillment. You know, you're growing, knocking down new milestones, right? Getting to new places, taking new steps. I mean, each milestone that you reach, like each little success, each new goal that you get to, right? I mean, it all increases your motivation, makes you look forward to the next one. And I think for a lot of us, that sense of growth, that sense that you're moving along, making progress, it makes us feel good. And a lot about business is about doing good for the world, doing good for other people. And I say the best businesses do that. They make people's lives better in some way. And I think as doctors and physicians, we understand that message. We understand what it feels like to be that type of person, to have that type of responsibility. And honestly, I think nobody does it better than doctors. Lastly, I think we love financial freedom just like anyone else, right? I mean, I talk about the idea of financial freedom quite a bit, right? It's a special place in my heart. It's been a personal goal and it had been for many years. And now that I'm at the place where I'm at, I can say with certainty that everyone listening to this can benefit from the freedom of not having to rely on. On the income from their day job, right? Trading that time for money. Your life can be significantly different. I mean, really embracing that inner entrepreneur that you have really could possibly allow you to hit that goal of financial freedom honestly faster than most people will ever think about, right? Or most people will ever achieve. Again, as a physician, you have that mindset of an entrepreneur. We've set these goals, and you've made them happen. So hopefully I've answered that question a bit. I mean, do doctors make good entrepreneurs? I mean, honestly, I've met so many amazing doctors that make great entrepreneurs. There's so many reasons why we can be successful. We've been successful in one area, in fact, one of the hardest areas to be successful in. I mean, I absolutely believe that. And where we can be successful in this area of business and entrepreneurship, you're not gonna be the first physician to do this. You. You're not going to be the first physician to try to start a business, and you won't be the last. And I promise you there are others who have done it and been successful. You know, something that my good friend Pranay Parikh tends to say quite a bit is he says, I think the world would be better place if we had more doctor physician entrepreneurs. And I absolutely believe that as well. I can't encourage you enough to just get going, to get started, get feedback, get plugged into a community of other people doing it the same. And ultimately we're here to support you, whatever that might be. So in any case, hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Have a great week and let's talk again soon. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Are you a part of our community yet? Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal the lives through multiple streams of income. You can join us on our Facebook group Passive Income Docs and you can always learn more at our website, passiveincomemd. Com. Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.